Found This Set Up. Opinions Please.

Dar...you can easily calculate the magnification by putting a mm ruler in place of the coin and snapping a photo of it. I like to put it vertically since that's the limiting direction for fitting a coin. Your Canon sensor is ~15mm tall, so for instance if you get the pic of the ruler and it reads total length of 5mm, then you are at 3:1 magnfication. You are spreading a 5mm object across a 15mm sensor.

Most objectives have the "RMS" mount so you are good to shop around. That said, I only shoot Nikon and would highly recommend sticking with them. They are not all great, but most are at least good.

Another simple option is to calibrate your M5 to 5x, and then add a 2x teleconverter on top to get to 10x. You can do this with the regular lens as well. Teleconverters are not free though, as they halve your aperture so more diffraction.

And both my trips were good. China was hot and is always difficult since I don't speak the language. But I had a very competent guide so mission accomplished. LA trip was much better. Same time zone. Same language. Rained as we drove down so the air was better than normal. And I picked up a bunch of BU Wheat rolls so it was a numismatic success!

All shots look great to my newbie eye. The M5 closeup though is very impressive!

Mark only recommends dedicated macro lenses on his site. Since most modern dedicated macros shorten their focal length at higher magnifications by ~30%, a 100mm minimum recommendation starts to make sense. At 1:1 the lens will only be a 70mm, maybe only 60mm on some models, so working distance will start to be very poor and lighting is a problem. This is especially true due to the large diameter of these lenses.

What we recommend on CCF eliminates all those problems. Bellows lenses don't shorten focus, so are much more predictable and consistent. A 75mm lens is 75mm under all condition. They are also small in diameter so don't get in the way of lighting like a big diameter dedicated macro.

But going down the bellows/extension path is not as easy as buying a dedicated macro, so doesn't appeal to everyone.

Here are a few other shots with different coins.





















I think things are going well. Still lots to learn though. Stacking is one of them.

Will I have to buy a program to stack with?

I will look into that thank you.

Any info on the smile directors? I have been playing around with tissue but haven't found anything I like yet.

There are not many hotspots on these images. A few pixels are blown-out in Red channel but generally they are not too bad. To eliminate these you can reduce your Ev a bit, perhaps 0.5EV. Adding a bit more diffusion will balance the lighting a little bit more, reducing the highlights and increasing the mid-tones.

All I can say is take pictures, try stuff, post them here, and ask questions. It will take some time to learn it all. I am still happy to learn something new every day.